Running a celebrity social media-stalking Instagram account with nearly 800,000 followers is a full-time job — at least for Emma Diamond and Julie Kramer.
You may have seen “Comments By Celebs” pop up in your discover feed, embedded on a celebrity news site or on “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” but there’s more to it than meets the eye.
The 20-somethings, who are both Syracuse University alums, put graduate school on hold when they saw an opportunity to capitalize on a 2017 algorithm change within the social media platform that allowed comments from verified accounts to be displayed higher in a user’s comment section. Meaning Taylor Swift’s comment on a public post would be displayed to more people than a regular user’s comment would be.
“We were seeing all these comments we’d never seen before and thought it was hilarious to get a first-hand look at what celebrities were saying,” Diamond recently told Page Six via phone. And once the account began to take off, she brought in Kramer to help her sift through the seemingly endless comments by celebrities that were being favored in her feed.
The workload varies for the two, who admit there are slower days as well as days when they feel swamped with content to choose from. Especially since they began featuring tweets on the account as well. “It’s not a 9-to-5 thing, but we’re both always on our phones,” Diamond explained, adding that they are only actually together once or twice a week.
They don’t use any proprietary software to locate or curate comments, either, but rather rely on their own instincts as well as their followers for submissions and recommendations.
One person they credit for helping get the word out is Kelly Ripa, who came across the account after they posted a comment she had left on one of her pal Andy Cohen’s photos.
“The first time Kelly Ripa slid into our DMs is when we jokingly posted about the account being featured on ‘Live!’ and she responded ‘done!’” Since then, Ripa has not only mentioned the account multiple times on air, but she was the inaugural guest on the “Comments By Celebs” podcast, which launched in July.
They described Ripa as “warm” and “open,” and said that “you totally forget when you’re talking to her, her star power because she’s so personable.”
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Today, they count Chrissy Teigen, Gwyneth Paltrow and John Mayer among their fans, with Teigen being “the pillar of the account … she’s one of the reasons [it] was created, her commentary is just so funny,” according to Diamond. The account recently started a Sunday roundup of Teigen’s most notable commentary from the week prior.
So how do they differentiate themselves from similar accounts like “The Shade Room”? By keeping things light.
“A lot of the other accounts kind of can be associated with more negative comments … our goal is to be … humorous and fun.” Which means they run into things they choose not to post pretty regularly, most notably coming from rapper 50 Cent.
“There’s generally ones where the clapback is too mean … and we don’t want to post it,” Diamond explained, adding that they’ve also asked multiple high-profile people permission to post certain comments in the past, when the content might be sensitive. “Sometimes they don’t want it being broadcast.”
Diving into the depths of Instagram has also unearthed some surprising celebrity friendships for the duo. One is Jamie Foxx and Barbra Streisand.
“He comments so often on her pictures, [things like] ‘So talented, so beautiful.’ He’s so sweet,” Kramer gushed, with Diamond adding that Foxx is “literally the most supportive person on Instagram.”
So what’s next? While their podcast launched in July, and can already count Ripa, Lisa Rinna and Cohen’s assistant Daryn Carp as notable guests, that’s only the beginning.
“We’re kind of riding the wave and our intuition has taken us this far and we’re going with what feels right. We’re definitely looking to expand the brand … beyond Instagram,” Diamond said.
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